2 year old with mouth jerking at night after falling asleep

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My son had a febrile seizure at 20 months. He had an abnormal EEG with centrotemporal spikes on left side. He has. Normal MRI. When he was about 22 months I noticed his right hand moving rhythmically within 15 minutes of going to sleep a couple of times. I also started to notice that about once every two weeks his mouth would jerk to the right shortly after falling asleep. I took video and sent it to the neurologist. We just did an overnight EEG. No seizures were observed but the same EEG patter was still present when drowsy and asleep. Dr wants to put him on triliptal. I am totally against meds because he is advanced developmentally and I don't want to do anything to change that. The episodes do not affect his breathing, always last less than three minutes and don't even wake him. There is no drooling or excessive sleeping afterwards. However, these last few days the episodes are getting closer together. He has has an episode of mouth jerking two nights in a row. Anyone else with similar experience? I am so scared for my baby and want to make the right decisions for him.

Comments

Trileptal has had no negative

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2014-09-07 - 01:42

Trileptal has had no negative cognitive or behavior impacts for our child. It is generally less problematic than many other drugs. (Required disclaimer, everyone is different). My child's seizures (partials, not BECTS) were increasing until we started treatment (treatment started right after we had results of an abnormal EEG). If your child has an increasing frequency of episodes, that is concerning (is it just BECTS or does the febrile seizure increase his chances of TLE/other seizure types?). Each partial most likely has a minor impact but my concern is the culmulative effects. Given what you wrote it doesn't sound like he fits the no treatment profile. What are the range of possible prognoses for kids with BECTS, more seizures than expected and not being treated?

So you have an advanced kid

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2014-09-11 - 15:23

So you have an advanced kid and you think it will be better to have seizures rather then take medications designed to stop them. The more seizures he has the more peoblems he will have at a latter date. Before I started having seizures I was advanced. The teachers wanted to move me up a grade. After not paying attention to what were seizures and having a grand mal seizure and starting medications I have had problems with my reading. It nowtakes me 2-3 times the average person used to read something which started after the seizures. HMMMMMMMMMM I guess you want that to happen with your kid. Medications today are nothing like they were when I was diagnosed back in the 1960's. The seizures I have today are nothing like those that I had 10-15 years ago. They are the same type of seizure before my seizures would be 2-8 minutes long and the focus time was 15-45 minutes long. Now those same seizures are 5-10 seconds long and the focus time is about the same. I'll take 20 seconds over an hour any day. I could have a seizure while you and I are talking and unless you knew what to look for you would know nothing about it. My PCP can varify that since we were talking while I was in a visit and I stopped in the middle of a sentence. I finished it and asked what he thought the delay in finishing my sentence was. He thought I was wanting to change words or getting my thought streight. I informed him that that delay was a seizure today rather then those I had had in his office years ago. I would say your decission should be to start using the medication prescribes by his neurologist. Neurologists generally prescribe medications they have patients on and start with dosages that other patiests they have are on. In other words the neurologist has patients already taking that medication and it is controling or reducing the number of seizures that patient has been having. The more episodes (as you call them) he has the more time it will take to get his seizures under control. Your son can still be advanced and still take medications. Would you still be not wanting him to take medications if he had a heart ailment and needed a medication to control the beat of his heart? Both are controlled by electrical impulses. Both can be controlled by medications. You see I did have an irregular heart beat which has now changed to Afib. So I take medications to keep electircal impulses from going off wrong in my brain (seizure). I also take medication that keeps my heart beating at a regular beat. I do hope you get your sons seizures under control and he gets seizure free.

So you have an advanced kid and you think it will be better to have seizures rather then take medications designed to stop them. The more seizures he has the more peoblems he will have at a latter date. Before I started having seizures I was advanced. The teachers wanted to move me up a grade. After not paying attention to what were seizures and having a grand mal seizure and starting medications I have had problems with my reading. It nowtakes me 2-3 times the average person used to read something which started after the seizures. HMMMMMMMMMM I guess you want that to happen with your kid. Medications today are nothing like they were when  I was diagnosed back in the 1960's. The seizures I have today are nothing like those that I had 10-15 years ago. They are the same type of seizure before my seizures would be 2-8 minutes long and the focus time was 15-45 minutes long. Now those same seizures are 5-10 seconds long and the focus time is about the same. I'll take 20 seconds over an hour any day. I could have a seizure while you and I are talking and unless you knew what to look for you would know nothing about it. My PCP can varify that since we were talking while I was in a visit and I stopped in the middle of a sentence. I finished it and asked what he thought the delay in finishing my sentence was. He thought I was wanting to change words or getting my thought streight. I informed him that that delay was a seizure today rather then those I had had in his office years ago. I would say your decission should be to start using the medication prescribes by his neurologist. Neurologists generally prescribe medications they have patients on and start with dosages that other patiests they have are on. In other words the neurologist has patients already taking that medication and it is controling or reducing the number of seizures that patient has been having. The more episodes (as you call them) he has the more time it will take to get his seizures under control.  Your son can still be advanced and still take medications. Would you still be not wanting him to take medications if he had a heart ailment and needed a medication to control the beat of his heart? Both are controlled by electrical impulses. Both can be controlled by medications. You see I did have an irregular heart beat which has now changed to Afib. So I take medications to keep electircal impulses from going off wrong in my brain (seizure). I also take medication that keeps my heart beating at a regular beat. I do hope you get your sons seizures under control and he gets seizure free. 

So you have an advanced kid and you think it will be better to have seizures rather then take medications designed to stop them. The more seizures he has the more peoblems he will have at a latter date. Before I started having seizures I was advanced. The teachers wanted to move me up a grade. After not paying attention to what were seizures and having a grand mal seizure and starting medications I have had problems with my reading. It nowtakes me 2-3 times the average person used to read something which started after the seizures. HMMMMMMMMMM I guess you want that to happen with your kid. Medications today are nothing like they were when I was diagnosed back in the 1960's. The seizures I have today are nothing like those that I had 10-15 years ago. They are the same type of seizure before my seizures would be 2-8 minutes long and the focus time was 15-45 minutes long. Now those same seizures are 5-10 seconds long and the focus time is about the same. I'll take 20 seconds over an hour any day. I could have a seizure while you and I are talking and unless you knew what to look for you would know nothing about it. My PCP can varify that since we were talking while I was in a visit and I stopped in the middle of a sentence. I finished it and asked what he thought the delay in finishing my sentence was. He thought I was wanting to change words or getting my thought streight. I informed him that that delay was a seizure today rather then those I had had in his office years ago. I would say your decission should be to start using the medication prescribes by his neurologist. Neurologists generally prescribe medications they have patients on and start with dosages that other patiests they have are on. In other words the neurologist has patients already taking that medication and it is controling or reducing the number of seizures that patient has been having. The more episodes (as you call them) he has the more time it will take to get his seizures under control. Your son can still be advanced and still take medications. Would you still be not wanting him to take medications if he had a heart ailment and needed a medication to control the beat of his heart? Both are controlled by electrical impulses. Both can be controlled by medications. You see I did have an irregular heart beat which has now changed to Afib. So I take medications to keep electircal impulses from going off wrong in my brain (seizure). I also take medication that keeps my heart beating at a regular beat. I do hope you get your sons seizures under control and he gets seizure free.